WHAT I LEARNED Anyone got a light? No lights, no radio, no visibility what would you do? The story of how a DC 3 crew found a foggy Gatwick airport reminds us all of the importance of staying calm under pressure By Mike Clarke O n 18th June 1959, I reported for my flight with Captain Dick Davis to fly G-AMSS up to Manchester to pick up our passengers. The weather over southern England was pretty grim. Low cloud and thick fog dominated, and we were grateful to be leaving it all behind. The trip was uneventful and, with fuel and flight plan completed, we were soon airborne again, heading for Switzerland, which had no weather problems to concern us. Once established southbound, my tasks were to tune the usual radio aids as they came up. Standard routing involved Lichfield, Daventry and then Hornchurch, passing slightly east of Heathrow. All went well until the need to tune in Hornchurch with the standard ADF tuner mounted in the roof panel. Having selected it, the next step was to tune and identify the beacon, and tell the captain that it was correctly aligned. Sadly, this simple check failed. No ident, and the ADF needle swung slowly around and never stopped. Naturally, I was asked to check again but still no result. 24 THE LOG Autumn 24 pp46-47 What I learned MC.indd 46 13/11/2024 14:41